A mix of unsettled coastal weather and stubbornly high humidity led to power outages Tuesday afternoon and into the overnight hours in parts of Eastern North Carolina.
The Duke Energy outage map shows that the worst of it is over, and most people have their lights back on. In Onslow County, where more than 2,800 customers were stuck in the dark at one point, numbers have plummeted to just over 100 isolated properties.
Things are also back to normal in Havelock. Crews worked quickly to stabilize the grid there, bringing critical city servers back online. That means phone lines and payment systems, which were down on Tuesday, are up and running again.
As emergency repairs wrap up, utility crews are shifting their focus back to standard operations, including the ongoing grid improvement project in Swansboro.
And that localized thunderstorm cell triggered a dramatic scene over the White Oak River Tuesday afternoon, producing a waterspout near Swansboro.
Dozens of people captured footage of the rotating funnel as it spun over the river channel. Emergency management officials confirm the vortex remained over open water and caused no structural damage before dissipating.
